Bukit Piton Orang Utan Project

What is this project all about?
This is a replanting/reforestation project in Bukit Piton Forest Reserve – a degraded forest due to unsustainable logging practices and 2 sets of drought induced fires in the past. Bukit Piton is located in Sabah in the Malaysian part of Borneo. Bukit Piton was discovered to house a high density of orangutan population. In attempt to save these orangutan from extinction, our replanting project aims to ensure long-term forest management and care to ensure that each tree planted grows successfully against threat of weeds, grass, creepers and climbers. In these latitudes everything grows very quickly, unfortunately also the climbing plants. These plants can inertly wrap the young free-standing trees fairly quickly. As a result, they wither or even be killed. This is the main reason why on going and long term maintenance work is required until the trees are big enough to provide shade. As soon as shade is created, the growth of the climbing plants slows down and the newly planted trees are less exposed to competition.

(Complete project description)

Ultimately the reforestation at Bukit Piton Forest Reserve goal is to enrich the living habitat of the endangered Borneo orangutan and other wildlife. Although previous NGO have initiated tree planting activities since 2007, there are still empty patches of open space to be planted to close the gap between the forests. At the same time, not all tree planted in the past survived due to short term forest management and maintenance. This is the main reason why we started with a small plot but with at least 5 years maintenance work. To date we have planted 65'000m² of trees (final round of maintenance work expected to complete by 2026)

By supporting the Bukit Piton – The Lost Home to the Orangutan?

• You help save the Borneo Orangutan population from being pushed to the brink of extinction. Bukit Piton will gain better awareness with your help and our presence on site. This ultimately means the orangutans and the rest of the fauna and flora can be better protected from harm or negative human influences.

• You help to enhance the carrying capacity of the forest in supporting high density of orangutan population in Bukit Piton. This would mean the orangutans will be able to have more space to roam for food and shelter.

• You help provide richer communities of plants and animals - Reforestation by planting wild fruit trees and dipterocarp trees is an invitation for the wildlife to come back to home ground. In addition to that, continuous long term forest management (eg: removing weed, creepers and replanting saplings that has been eaten or knocked down by the wildlife) will increase the value of this once severely damaged forest.

• You help support the local community by providing work opportunity for the local contractors to execute the tree planting and maintenance work. At the same time, the local community becomes more aware of their biodiverse and fragile environment.

• You help contribute towards reduction of global warming and improve the global well-being by going against the destruction of natural CO2 storage.

The funds will be used to finance the ongoing 65'000m² maintenance work for year 2022.This is to ensure that the trees planted do not die due to being strangled by creepers or destroyed by wildlife/weather. If some trees die it will be replaced with a new seedling.